Newbie Guide
Defending your base It's very important to know the rules regarding base immunity! A base cannot be attacked with TNT unless the other team has 2 players on. This means if you are on the server at all, you are contributing to that player count and thereby putting your team's base at risk! So it is your duty to protect your team's base if it is attacked! Fortunately if you are new, you are given 2 hours of "noob protection". This means that for the first 2 hours you are on the server, you do not add to the immunity player count. So if there are two newbies and one regular player, the count will be 1 player and the base will remain immune to TNT. Use your 2 hours of immunity well! Figure out where your team's main base is. (It should be where you first spawn, but not necessarily). You can type /plots to see your team's plots. Set up a bed. Get familiar with where the armory/weapons are. Get an idea of the bases defenses, etc. You can type /who to see if you still have noob protection. If a base is TNTed with 2 players on, it will remain vulnerable for at least 10 minutes. So you can't just log out to avoid being raided. Do NOT be a lone wolf! Going off in the wilderness and "doing your own thing" is largely frowned upon. You want to stay close to your base so you can defend it. If everyone is spread out, it makes it easier for the other team to raid you. Building Almost all these guidelines are constantly broken by players, new and old. Read and learn! *Build your base out of stone bricks. It's more than twice as strong as cobble. Just use obsidian to reinforce key areas, like your armory door, or underneath doors. *Do NOT build overhangs, even if it's 1 block. Enemy teams can create vine beanstalks under them and climb up. This can completely undermine entire walls and hours of your team's work. This includes FLAGS that extend past walls. *Every defense is only as strong as its weakest point. There's no point in building a 5 thick wall all around your base, then having 1 iron door on it. Use as many iron doors as will fit. Likewise building a wall half out of stone brick and half out of cobble is not good. The enemy will just attack the cobble part if they're smart and all the bricks will be wasted. Also make sure walls extend into the ground or they can be tunneled under with TNT easily. *Likewise if you're building a wall, build it in layers. It's better to build a 1 thick wall, then make it a 2 thick then 3 thick wall. If you start building a wall that is 5 thick, it won't be effective until it is completely finished. And this could take days. All the while the other team will be able to just walk right by the 1/2 finished wall. *THINK before you build and think OFFENSIVELY. Look at what you are building and ask yourself what the enemy will do to exploit any weaknesses. Are you building a temporary shelter completely out of wood? The enemy will just set it on fire. Are you building a bridge over a moat? The enemy can use the bridge to vine out of the moat. *Use a lot of iron doors and leave spaces for doors. If you're building a staircase, leave plenty of 3 block spaces where you can place doors. *Do not put doors flush with the outside wall. All the enemy has to do is blast through 2 bricks and they can bypass the door. If you place the door on the inside part of the block the enemy has to blast through 4 bricks (or blast the block under the door). *Be careful about connecting walls together. If a player can get onto one wall, they can get onto the other wall too. If you have a lot of concentric walls, do not connect them radially or they can just get onto the outermost one and walk straight to your keep. *Put level land between your ditches and walls. if you put a ditch on either side of a wall, the enemy just has to drop into the ditch and TNT through the wall and get out of the second ditch. If you spread them out, they have to get in and out of the first ditch, through the wall, then in and out of the second ditch. *Avoid putting water at high levels. The enemy can TNT the water from below and use the stream to climb up. Also try not to put water near trenches or they can TNT a path from the trench to the water and create an easy way to go down and up. *Arrow slots. 1 wide arrow slots are usually bad. All the enemy has to do is aim at the hole and shoot as soon as you appear. Meanwhile they can move around in every direction. Raids (Offensive side) *Always wear iron armor for raids. Even if you are new and afraid to lose it, it's better to lose it than to not be able to help your team effectively because you are too vulnerable. *For serious raids, you probably want a diamond sword, enchanted bow, about a stack of arrows and a good amount of food. Also, even if you are not the main TNT'er it's good to have TNT and a lighter in case you get stuck somewhere. *Use the good food during raids. You don't want to be standing around eating 12 watermelons while you're being shot at. *Before you raid, scout the enemy base thoroughly. Sometimes walls aren't completely finished, or they may have left glaring weaknesses. Attack wherever the base is weakest. Make nerdpoles and look into the enemy's base. Take screenshots. If you use Rei's minimap you can see an overhead view of the other team's base and plan your attack better. *Time is of the essence. Work quickly, don't stand around. *Stick together, but not too close. Do not bunch up when you raid or it makes it easier for the other team to hit you with arrows. But stay close enough so if one player is attacked, the rest of the team can kill the attacker before it's too late. *Don't obsess about leaving an exit out of the base! Just head straight for your goal and attack. Spending time making a backwards path out of every pit is usually more costly than just heading forward and worrying about the retreat later.. *Don't be upset if the raid fails. Almost all raids do. Just have fun and be content with whatever damage you were able to inflict. *Prepare ahead for a second wave! Have extra sets of armor/weapons etc handy so when you die you can quickly get back in the fight. You can even place a portal near the enemy's base so you can get back there quicker. Getting raided The most important aspect of defending your base is the construction of the base itself! *Make sure you can quickly get to every area of the base. If you only have an exit to the south from your spawn, and they attack from the north, that can make it a lot harder to repel the attack. There should be a direct path to every point in your base (protected with plenty of iron doors). *Make sure you can get on top of every wall at many points. If people are TNTing you need to be able to quickly get up and attack with arrows. You don't want to have to walk 50 blocks to the side to be able to get up the wall. You can protect the ladders with things like piston stairs and gravel ladders (need sections on these) *You should be able to get out of your spawn QUICKLY. You don't want to have to climb up a ladder just to get out the spawn room. Ideally you want to be able to spawn, and walk straight to the area being attacked. Instead of climbing down stairs or ladders, make quick drops using vines or water *You can place beds anywhere! You don't have to put all the beds in the same area! If your main area is attacked, why not have a second area for backup beds/ weapons? You can even put beds in each turret on your wall with a chest of swords nearby for optimum zerg rushing. *Alternate ways into the base. If you lose your bed, or your bed isn't by the spawn, you don't want to have to wood axe your way through the enemy hordes to get into your base. Make multiple entrances into your base. non-base building advice: *Always have plenty of swords and bows and arrows by your spawn. You don't want to be wasting time during a raid crafting materials. Be ready to repel an attack at all times. *ZERG ZERG ZERG. Do NOT worry about being killed during a raid. Many times people stand around afraid of dying and losing their stuff. Just stash everything, take a stone sword and attack. It's better to attack 5 times with a stone sword and die than to hide in a corner somewhere taking potshots with arrows because you're afraid to die. *Attack in waves. It's much more effective to attack all at once, than for everyone to attack one after the other. *Isolate the enemy. If one enemy gets stranded from the rest of the pack, they are very vulnerable. *PATCH HOLES. It can't be stressed how important it is to patch holes! If you don't patch holes as they are made, the raid will never end. This can also be very demoralizing to the enemy when they see their progress quickly being undone. General PVP tips *Don't take a lot of stuff with you outside of your base. Always stash all but the basic necessities or you WILL lose it. *Bows are for long distance... Don't switch to your bow when the enemy is 6 blocks away and coming right at you. If you want to switch to bow get far away first. *Don't attack while moving backwards. Due to Minecraft netlag, this will just get you killed. You always want to be moving forward when using the sword. *Also due to Minecraft quirkiness, the person who is at a lower elevation has the upper hand in sword fights. So if a person is in a hole and you want to kill them, it can be hard to kill them with a sword. *Always watch your back. If you travel a long distance, whenever you stop look behind you. There's a chance someone was following you. *Always keep your sword selected when you are in the wild. =Plots= *Claim as many plots around you base as possible. You don't want the enemy creating a plot right next to yours. *Don't place gold blocks close together. Plots can be up to 151x151 wide. That means to optimize placement you want to keep gold blocks 151 blocks apart in the x and z directions. If you place 8 blocks around your initial base in 151 block increments, it will mean the enemy won't be able to create a plot anywhere near your main base. Part of that space will be neutral but you can take as much time as you need expanding each of the 8 blocks to claim it all and the other team won't be able to. *You probably want your base close to the spawn area since that's where villagers spawn.